Beware: This Area Is Being Watched

“Beware: This Area Is Being Watched”

Samantha knew the sign well because she had seen it many times over the years. But like everyone else, she shrugged it off. She laughed at it.

It was a strongly built sign made of some reinforced, durable materials deliberate for long-term exposure, placed in front of “the area," as the townspeople dubbed it. This specific area was a wide and oddly shaped field, like some sort of moor. Rumor has it that area was owned by an immigrant family back in the early 1900s. After the immigrants suddenly moved on without notice, it became property of the county, and the warning sign was already on the property.

No one in her hometown of Rossville, or in her small community of family and friends, knew who or what was watching the area. The younger generation saw the sign as an invitation to give “whoever was watching” a show.

People did not take the warning sign seriously, and it became a town symbol of mockery or a joke. “Don’t go to the area because they are watching you!”, “Warning! The aliens are watching you!”, “God’s watching you or the Devil’s watching you!” became the center of many jokes and even a small-town cheesy touristy gimmick.

The area was the perfect place for teenagers in the 90s to hang out. Samantha, now 46, remembers the times she and her friends had hung out, played ballgames, and drank alcohol without parental guidance on “the area.” She recalls her senior year when Mac and David got into a fistfight and Mac had to be pulled off David because of the severity of the fight. Mac never came back to school after that, and he and his family just upped and moved away without saying a word to anyone. Samantha imagined it had something to do with the shame he felt from the fight.

Samantha remembers when Beth, the high school cheer squad leader, walked all the way to “the area” just to tell Becky she did not make the team that year. Beth was gloating from ear to ear as she told Becky the unfortunate news.

Beth fell on her way out of “the area” and broke her leg. The cheerleading squad disqualified her, and, weird as it may sound, her family, out of humiliation, she supposed, left town abruptly, apparently in the middle of the night without a single notice. No one saw them again.

The teenagers made fun of the sign with statements such as “God is watching and He don’t like ugly!” They laughed aloud with remarks that suggested God punishes ugly-acting people. Then they would laugh and continue with “Maybe it’s the devil, not God.” The mockery of disbelief that “the area” had any power to make people vanish continued regardless of questionable disappearances.

Samantha left for college at 18 years of age and did not take it seriously about “the area” or the warning sign until she recently moved back to Rossville. After college, Sam married an Army officer, and they did not come back to her hometown very often. After a failed marriage, she and her beloved rescue dog, Lucy, moved back to her hometown to heal and possibly start a new life. Her son, Marcus, is also in the Army now, and neither her ex or her son know much about her hometown or “the area” with the posted warning sign.

After her mom passed last year, Sam did not sell her family home because of the unsteadiness of her marriage. Her parents tried to sell the home many times over the years but without success, so they stayed there until they both passed away.

Aiming to get reacquainted with her once-familiar birthplace, Sam walked around the small town, reintroducing herself. To her pleasant surprise, a few townspeople remembered her and welcomed her back. Some people spoke of her parents and the sadness felt after they passed.

Samantha walked past “the area” and sure enough, the sign was still there: “Beware: This Area Is Being Watched.”

She thought of the many incidents that occurred in the area and the unanswered question: who or what was actually watching the area?

Thoughts of Jay crossed her mind, too. Jay was her first boyfriend, and he had always said “the area” was no good and stayed away from it. He said it gave him the creeps and believed evil lurked there. He never liked it when Samantha went there to hang out with her friends, and eventually they split up because Jay didn’t want to hang out there –ever.

The property was now fenced off from public access and fresh signs were hanging on the fence entrance stating (or begging), “Please do not enter!” This forbidden entrance sign was provided by the local police department.

Samantha’s parents told her several stories over the years after she left Rossville about the area. Her dad told her just days before his fatal heart attack about an incident that took place involving him.

Her dad told her that when he and his friend Ernie were walking past “the area” a young man threw a ball at Ernie, hitting him on the face while knocking his glasses off. When Ernie confronted the man, the man challenged the elder gentleman onto “the area” where he beat him up. Samantha’s dad ran to help, but the young man was stronger than both older men and ended up harming Ernie badly. Samantha’s dad told the police everything they knew about the young man, identified as Joey Baldwin, a local bully. But when the police went to talk with Joey, he was nowhere to be found, just disappeared, never to be seen again.

Her mom had stories about “the area,” too. Like the time she and her walking friends strolled by the land and witnessed a dog being harmed by a woman who lived on Main Street. Her mom said the lady was out of control using a strap on the poor animal in the area. Her mom and friends yelled and waved their arms in an effort to save the dog, but the woman dragged the animal further away from them until all they could do was call the police.

When the police went to the animal abuser’s house, she was nowhere to be seen. Maybe out of fear, she left town, and she left all her belongings behind. It was a strange phenomenon.

Samantha wondered if all the stories throughout the years regarding “the area” had influenced her parents to try selling their home. She wondered if the stories were the reason they couldn’t sell their house. But like most people, she laughed it off and went on her way back to her parents’ home. Her home.

After a few weeks back in her hometown, Samantha had heard many other stories surrounding the area with the warning sign. And all the stories led to the disappearance of someone who had acted brutally towards another human, animal, or toward “the area.” Regardless of the stories, the jokes continued about the warning sign.

Jay heard she had moved back to Rossville and when he ran into her at the local county clerk’s office where Samantha began working as a Notary Public, he was excited to see her again. And while he said that he was sorry to hear of her failed marriage, he was secretly beaming.

Jay said he was glad she moved away–away from “the area.” He said it gave him peace in knowing she no longer hung out there anymore. He also admitted to Samantha that he has been the butt of many jokes and sarcasm surrounding the warning sign and the disappearance of folks.

He had become the town’s sheriff after many years in the police force. He considered it part of his duty to caution people of “the area” with the warning sign. According to Jay, anyone who attempted to remove the sign disappeared without a trace, and he and other officials could never figure it out.

The best that Jay came up with after many investigators, scientists, mediums or religious folks, or outsiders’ expertise and perspectives was that “the area” was, and is, haunted or some sacred land that led to the demise of anyone disturbing the land with violence or destruction of any kind. But even if that were true, people still mocked the town's heritage and dismissed the possibility.

It didn’t take long for Jay to convince Samantha that “the area” was forever cursed for any hate-like disturbances. He also convinced her to renew their courtship and begin as an item again. She knew Jay carried the responsibility as guard duty for “the area” alone for many years. Even though people may or may not agree on the calamity that came with “the area” and its warning sign, the defensive burden of keeping people safe from the area fell upon Jay’s shoulders. 

Alongside Jay, Samantha also became a self-appointed guardian of the people of Rossville and other passersby. There was no longer doubt in her mind that “the area” was either sacred or haunted. Until they figured out a way to restore it, they were under obligation to ward off anyone who tries to climb the modern fence designed to be a safety method to manage access to any visitor onto to the eerie land.

Together, they form an alliance to educate as many people as possible of the history of “the area” and the significance behind the stories. Some listen. Some don’t. Some laugh.